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14 THE ANALECTS _. INTRODUCTION.
surpassed, if equalled, since the world began. That the
Empire must be rid of such a savage became manifest, and
the man appointed to this great work was already in the
making.
THE CHOU _ DYNASTY. That man was Fa,
otherwise known as Wu Wang. _ q_._ He it was who
became the saviour of his country, and the Founder o(the
Chou dynasty. Born in the State of Ch'i _ of which
his father was lord, he was brought up under the best of
influences. His father Ch'ang _ the Chief of the West,
better known by his posthumous title of King W_n 2_ :E__,
was a ruler intellectual, honourable, and of great administrative
ability. So admirably did he counduct the gov*
ernment of his State, that people flocked from the oppression
of other rulers to enroll themselves under his protection.
Accused before the tyrant Emperor as a danger to
the royal power he was thrown into prison, and while
incarcerated there he occupied his lonely hours in the
study of Fu Hsi's diagrams, represented by the modern
Pa Kua/_k _.[,, and in the compilation of a commentary
thereon which, completed by his son King Wu, has come
down to us as an important part of the Yi Ching _ _,
China's famous book of divination. The expenditure by
his son of a large sum in the way of lansom, and the presentation
to the Tyrant by W6n's affectionate subjects o{
a handsome concubine and a number of fine horses, secur-
ed his release. Being commissioned thereupon to reduce
tile frontier tribes, he augmented his army, which became
so efficient that, when he died, he left his son Fa the most
powerful noble in the land.